The people who live in Coatesville, and the people who care about Coatesville, got two very welcome pieces of news this month that should give them some needed faith in the city’s beleaguered police department. First was the conviction of and death penalty sentence for Laquanta Chapman, the man behind the grisly slaying of a beloved city teenager, Aaron Turner. The second was the appointment of a respected and experienced police administrator, Stephen Johnson of Philadelphia, as chief of police.

Chapman’s conviction should bring some relief to Coatesville because it ends one of the more horrible and horrifying acts of violence in not only the history of Coatesville but of Chester County at large. And it shows that the city police can work effectively, together with the Chester County District Attorney’s Office and county detectives, to solve a crime against one of its citizens. Too many otherwise well-intentioned people in the Coatesville community see the police as somehow working against their interests, when in fact the vast majority of police officers want to work on behalf of the citizens in the city and against those who degrade it with criminal activity.

Aaron Turner was a young man who made a youthful mistake by becoming involved with drug activity in the city, an ill-advised choice that many in the county make, and not just in Coatesville. Because of that, he angered Chapman, who lived across the street from Turner and his family and was an unrepentant drug dealer. The details of what happened to Turner are well known. He was killed, and his body disposed of in the most gruesome way imaginable. Chapman, arrested for the murder in 2009, was convicted of first degree murder last week and sentenced to death by a Common Pleas Court jury this week, the first such finding by a county jury in nearly two decades.

Stephen Johnson was given the much discussed job of chief of police by City Council by a unanimous vote on Monday, a victory for those who wanted the leadership of the city to be experienced and professional.

Johnson, a deputy police commissioner in Philadelphia, said he is looking forward to the opportunity to begin a new experience in Coatesville and to help solve some of the issues within the police department.

“It’s a respectable town with some problems, but seems like a very good place to start a second career,” Johnson said. “I hope to bring my expertise to help solve some of the problems there.” Johnson currently oversees the internal investigations within the Philadelphia Police Department and said he hopes those experiences will help him solve some of the personnel issues in Coatesville.

“I am going to try to build a better community, a place where people can watch their kids grow up safely and can conduct their business and grow their livelihood,” he told Daily Local News staff writer Eric Smith. “It’s all about quality of life and having citizen buy-in. I want the people to feel good about living in Coatesville and I want my subordinate officers to feel good about being Coatesville police officers.”